Dawn of the New World
by AngelTheSeventh
Summary: We are dying as we live, unable to save ourselves as we fall deeper into the pitch-black hole of oblivion. Hate has corrupted us. Like a disease it infects every part of our being and everyone around us, and it is only by one force that we can be cured.


**I'm gonna publish one last thing on here before I leave for a while. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to my profile real quick. **

**This is a small oneshot inspired by a certain song I heard some months back. If I ever remember what it was called, I'll put it here. I hope I will soon, because it might've been the most beautiful song I've ever heard. **

**It originally had nothing to do with Minecraft, but I added some stuff in there so I could pass it off as fanfiction.**

**Anyway, hope you like it. :D**

…

She sat still as ice on the rock, staring at the jet-black sky. A thick band of stars stretched across it, glowing with dusty colors like dull red and purple. They reflected on the wide lake below her, flat and motionless due to the lack of wind.

To her, it was almost as if the water was a sort of portal into the sky because of how well it reflected the stars. It was no longer water when she looked at it. If she jumped off the rock, she'd tumble down into it. And after that, when she opened her eyes, there would be no more OverEarth. Just stars.

She breathed in steadily and slowly, ignoring the strange and slightly painful rattling in her chest as the air filled her weak lungs. Her sickness didn't matter on nights like these. To her, it didn't matter that any beat of her heart could be the last.

She was alone with the sky and the stars. And they didn't care of things like disease.

"Uh. Mom?" An uncertain voice sounded quietly behind her, startling her out of her thoughts. "You…wanted to talk to me?"

The woman didn't move. She only said, in a voice almost too soft to hear, "Sit with me."

There was a long moment in which the boy, who had spoken, didn't move. He was confused. His mother was very sick, and the village doctors had told her family to leave her at peace at all times. She had a disease of the mind—at least, that's what they said—that caused her to say and do strange things. It was from this sickness that others sprouted. Her lungs were weak and failing. Her heartbeat was irregular, threatening to stop at any moment.

In other words, she was dying. The man that was once her husband had moved on, no longer able to love her. Their son, the boy, was torn. Torn between staying with his mother in her final hours or abandoning her like his father had told him to do. _She was never a normal woman, _he had said. _She'll fill your mind with the strangest things. Stay away from her, you hear?_

_Yes, Dad, _he had solemnly.

And yet, here he was.

And there _she _was, just minutes before dawn, sitting alone. As if she wasn't scared of the mobs that roamed the darkness. As if they couldn't touch her.

So he climbed up sat next to her on the flat-topped boulder, overlooking the steep hill that sloped to a giant lake with a rocky shore. She came here often to stare at the sky. It was usually after storms or at night. Other people claimed to have heard her talking to herself, and then claiming that proved she was mentally unstable.

"What is it, Mom?" he asked, glancing at her face, which was bathed in starlight. It was already pale, so it practically glowed. He noticed she was faintly smiling. She had no reason to be happy, and yet she was smiling.

"I…want to tell you a story," she rasped.

The words surprised him. A story? He hadn't heard one from his parents since he turned six. And that was six years ago. "Um, okay," he said, hanging his legs over the edge of the boulder. It was probably best just to go with it. "What about?"

"It goes…like this," she whispered, hugging her knees to her body. "Millions of years ago…when we didn't know what stars were…there was a girl."

"A girl? What was her name?"

"Her…name," the woman repeated. "Her name was…unimportant to her, for she never…responded to it. But…we will call her Astari."

"Astari?" he asked. "Okay."

"Her people were…warlike and brutal. Such is the nature of our race. She distanced…herself…from them. Her soul was…untainted by the…words and actions of her kind. Astari…ran from them one day. She found…people that were just like they were. It didn't take her long to…to realize…to realize that…the world is like that everywhere."

"Is?"

"Yes. We have not changed."

"So…," he said, gazing out at the still lake, whose surface was smooth as glass. "What did she do?"

"Astari, she…she lived, in sorrow. Years later, she died in sorrow."

The boy was silent, a bit surprised. He then said, "That's a terrible story. How does it—"

"The story isn't over," she said, cutting him off. "Astari died, yes, but her soul…it was still alive. It didn't…travel to the Aether or the Nether. Yet it left the OverEarth."

"So…where did it go?"

"It went to a strange land in between these three places. This place…exists only in the dreams of the dead. The spirits of Heaven and Hell see this place when they sleep. But they…don't understand what it is. They don't…they don't hear the words of the…of the…the…"

"The what?"

"The Beyonder Beast. For this place is called the Beyond, and the Beyonder Beast lives there. He doesn't have…have a body, or a heart, or anything. Anything but…a voice. He told Astari that she was to be reborn in a new body. And when…she asked why…he told her it was because she was born with a pure soul."

"What does that mean?"

"Because she had a pure soul…she had a special purpose. And she would live over and over again until she fulfilled her purpose. Or until she ran out of time to do it."

"Why would it take so long?"

"Because…because…every time she was reborn, her memories of past lives and her time in the Beyond were wiped out. But…in every life, she learned more and more, unconsciously building upon her knowledge each time."

"But what was the purpose?"

The woman sighed, creating an explosion of rattles in her lungs. The boy was so used to hearing it, that he didn't react much. "The purpose was to…to make…to make the people of the OverEarth realize the truth."

"Which was…?"

She didn't answer his question; she only continued with telling the story. "Each time she was in…the…Beyond, she remembered her…her lives. She lived thousands of times, never remembering until she died, what it was she needed to do. After…after her third time in the Beyond, the Beyonder Beast stopped talking to her. Soon…she forgot altogether. She decided the world was fine in anarchy. She…stopped caring…"

"But Mom, what was the purpose?"

"She lived thousands of lives like this. Finally, the…the Beyonder Beast grew weary of watching her forget and fail. He spoke to her once again."

"What did he say?"

"This. _'Girl of stars, you...have failed again.' _Astari said...said to him, _'How is this so? I have lived hundreds upon hundreds of times. There is nothing I have not done. There is no place I have...have not seen. What is it you want from me?' _

He said to her, _'With every new life, you enter the...world as someone who can change it. Someone who can put an end to the violence and hate it has become. Your soul and mind were pure, and now you have let them both be tainted by the hidden anger and bloodlust that lies within every being around you. You are different than you were. Not only have you failed yourself, but you have failed the gods and I. And every being is now doomed to drown in chaos. You could have saved them, Astari. But you remained silent. You...did nothing.'_

And Astari said to him, _'I no longer remember what my task was. You stopped reminding me.'_

'_I stopped reminding you because you never remembered. I was silent in hopes you would find the truth, declare it, and live it on your own.'_

'_And...what is the truth?'_

'_The truth is love.'"_

"Love?" asked the boy, glancing to his mother. When she spoke of the conversation between Astari and the Beyonder Beast, her frequent pauses ceased. Her voice was clear and louder, as if she was no longer sick. She sounded more energized. And the phrases…they were familiar. He knew he had heard them before.

"Yes. Love," she answered, sighing. "Astari said to him, _'I have seen love. And I have lived it. There is plenty in the world, isn't there?'_

'_No,' _said the Beast. _'There will never be enough until wars and violence are no more. You beings are the same—no differences. Just one species that has been divided by the ever-growing rift between the rich and the poor, the bright and the dull, the liked and the disliked, the healthy and the sick. Astari, you must be the bridge between them. This is your destiny. This is how you must save the human race, for you all are on a path to the destruction of your species. You are children of the OverEarth. Respect this gift. Nurture your world and each other. Spread these words, Astari, in your last life.'_

'_I…am to be born again?' _Astari asked him.

'_Yes,' _he said. _'You have one more chance. And after this next life, your soul will travel to the realm in which it belongs. Astari, promise you will remember. Promise you will pass these words to those around you. Promise you will let them understand.'_

Astari, she…changed again. Suddenly she remembered…she remembered who she was. What she had to do. So she said, _'I promise. I will remember what you have said, in my last life. I will do as you ask and spread these words.'_

'_Thank you, Astari. Your legacy will live on in your offspring. Over time, the world will change. And it will be for the better. You have one last chance. Do not waste it.'"_

The woman stopped speaking as if to catch her breath. Towards the end, the boy noticed, she sounded slightly exhausted. She hadn't spoken so much in what was probably years, so he wasn't surprised.

Still, the story captivated him in a strange way, like no story he had heard before—he wanted to know what happened next.

"And then?" he asked.

"And then," she whispered, tilting her head higher, focusing on one star high above them—the brightest star. "She lived again, one last time. She…spoke her words of wisdom, and was called crazy. Few took them to heart. But even a few…is all there needs to be. She'll be young when she dies…but hopefully…she won't have completely vanished from this OverEarth."

Something wasn't right with the way she said that.

"Wait, she _will _be young when she dies? Or did you mean _was _young?" The boy sat up straighter when he said this, for a jarring conclusion was working itself out in his mind. _Oh, don't tell me…, _he thought.

"Will be. What I said…it was right…she's still alive."

"How so?" asked the boy, who was staring intently at his mother. "Where is she?"

The woman turned to look directly into the eyes of her son, and it took all his willpower not to look away. For her eyes seemed to glow a brighter blue than normal, staring right through him. "I am the one who lived again," she murmured. "I am Astari."

He had already known it. Yet it still shocked him. He stared at her, confusion and disbelief evident in his expression. "But Mom," he said. "Your name is Stella."

"Yes," she told him. "I am Stella, yet…yet I am Astari. Both names mean 'star', but...in different tongues. I was given a message from the Beyonder Beast, and I've passed it to you. The imbalance between peoples has…grown since the time I spoke with him. And I know something now. Another truth."

"What is that truth?"

She let out a shaky breath and looked downwards, towards the lake. "I know that only the end of time itself, which is approaching, can settle the accounts. I'm too late. I had the chance, long ago. And I didn't take it. The Beyonder Beast was wrong."

"Mom…," he murmured, watching as she began to hang her head. "It's not your fault."

"Don't waste your words on me," she whispered. "Don't try to make me feel better. I knew I was too late, a long time ago. But all I could do was try, and..." She trailed off.

"But I'm serious," he said, putting a hand on her small shoulder. "It's _not _your fault. It's…everyone's, isn't it? We failed our species. I mean, look at us—we can't stop fighting, killing, destroying. We all did this to ourselves."

It was after a brief moment that she raised her head and looked at him again. "You're…right, in a way. But…" she paused.

They both looked east, where the sky was lightening, the purple and black paling. The stars began to fade away, ever so slowly.

"Dawn," murmured the woman to herself.

"Are you sure it's too late for us?" the boy asked as he watched the horizon. "It's too late to realize what we're doing? For there to be peace, there has to be strife. Right?"

"I was told to try. No one guaranteed my success," she said quietly. "I was told that my task would be completed over generations, through my children and grandchildren. I had my chance, and this is yours. You can take it or you can leave it."

_She's asking, _he realized. _I don't have to say yes._

After all, that was a lot to ask. _Save the world, _she was saying, beneath a mask of other words. He didn't have to say yes. Yet when he looked at her face, illuminated by the dying glow of the stars, he saw that he'd never be able to say no.

So he said yes.

And she smiled. "Thank you. _'We are children of the OverEarth. Respect this gift,'_" she whispered, quoting words from the Beyonder Beast.

The boy slowly stood on the rock next to his mother, watching the sky as it brightened with the light of tomorrow.

"I will," he said.

…

**So, what do you think of this? I'm thinking of getting rid of the Minecraft elements and entering it in a contest that my school has every year, so tell me in a review if you think it has a shot.**

**-AngelTheSeventh **


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